Early history The
Cincinnati Red Stockings, established in 1869 as the first openly all-professional baseball team, voted to dissolve after the 1870 season. Player-manager
Harry Wright then went to
Boston, Massachusetts—at the invitation of Boston businessman
Ivers Whitney Adams—with brother
George Wright and two other Cincinnati players joined the
Boston Red Stockings, a charter member of the
National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. This team and its successors are the oldest continuously playing team in American professional sports. (The only other team that has been organized as long,
the Chicago Cubs, did not play for the two years after the
Great Chicago Fire of 1871.) Two players hired from the
Forest City club of
Rockford, Illinois, were pitcher
Al Spalding (founder of
Spalding sporting goods) and second baseman
Ross Barnes.
cigarette card (Goodwin & Company, 1888) Led by the Wright brothers, Barnes, and Spalding, the Red Stockings won four of the National Association's five championships. The team became one of the National League's charter franchises in 1876, sometimes called the "
Red Caps" (as a new Cincinnati Red Stockings club was another charter member). Boston came to be called the
Beaneaters by sportswriters in 1883, while retaining red as the team color. Boston won the 1877 and 1878 pennants. The Red Caps/Beaneaters won eight pennants during the 19th century. Their
manager was
Frank Selee, the first manager not to double as a player as well.
The 1898 team finished 102–47, a club record for wins that would stand for almost a century. In 1894 the Braves became the first major league baseball team to wear letterforms on their uniform caps when they added a monogram-style device to their front. In 1897, the Beaneaters, as runner-up in the
National League, took part in the
1897 Temple Cup championship series against the
Baltimore Orioles, losing in five games. They only managed one winning season from 1900 to 1913, and lost 100 or more games six times. In
1907,
the renamed Doves (temporarily) eliminated the red from their stockings because their manager thought the red dye could cause wounds to become infected (as noted in
The Sporting News Baseball Guide during the 1940s when each team's entry had a history of its nickname(s). See details in
History of baseball team nicknames). The American League club's owner, Charles Taylor, changed his team's name to the Red Sox in place of the "Americans". When
George and
John Dovey acquired the club in 1907, the team was named the
Doves; when purchased by
William Hepburn Russell in 1911 reporters tried out
Rustlers. The team adopted an official name, the
Braves, for the first time in
1912. Their owner,
James Gaffney, a member of New York City's
Tammany Hall, tributed the team to
Tamanend, "The Patron Saint of America," with the name and his image as the logo.
1914: Miracle Two years later, the Braves put together one of the most memorable seasons in baseball history. After a dismal 4–18 start, the Braves seemed to be on pace for a last place finish. On July 4, 1914, the Braves lost both games of a doubleheader to
the Brooklyn Dodgers. The consecutive losses put their record at 26–40 and the Braves were in last place, 15 games behind the league-leading
New York Giants, who had won the previous three league pennants. After a day off, the Braves put together a hot streak, and from July 6 through September 5, the Braves won 41 games against only 12 losses. On September 7 and 8, the Braves took 2 of 3 from the New York Giants and moved into first place. The Braves tore through September and early October, closing with 25 wins against 6 losses, while the Giants went 16–16. They are the only team to win a pennant after being in last place on the
Fourth of July. They were in last place as late as July 18, but were close to the pack, moving into fourth on July 21 and second place on August 12. Despite their comeback, the Braves entered
the World Series as a heavy underdog to
Connie Mack's
Philadelphia Athletics. Nevertheless, the Braves swept the Athletics—the first unqualified sweep in the young history of the modern World Series (the
1907 World Series had one tied game)—to win the world championship. Meanwhile, former
Chicago Cubs infielder
Johnny Evers, in his second season with the Braves, won
the Chalmers Award. The Braves played the World Series (as well as the last few weeks of the 1914 regular season) at
Fenway Park, since their normal home, the
South End Grounds, was too small. However, the Braves' success inspired owner Gaffney to build a modern park,
Braves Field, which opened in August 1915. It was the largest park in the majors at the time, with 40,000 seats and also a very spacious outfield. The park was novel for its time; public transportation brought fans right into the park.
1915–1935: Losing years in 1928 After contending for most of 1915 and 1916, the Braves spent much of the next 19 years in mediocrity, during which they posted only three winning seasons (
1921,
1933, and
1934). The lone highlight of those years came when Giants' attorney
Emil Fuchs bought the team in 1923 to bring his longtime friend, pitching great
Christy Mathewson, back into the game. Although original plans called for Mathewson to be the principal owner, he had never recovered from
tuberculosis that he had contracted after being
gassed during
World War I. By the end of the 1923 season, it was obvious Mathewson could not continue even in a reduced role, and he would die two years later, with the result that Fuchs was permanently given the presidency. In 1928, the Braves traded for Hall of Famer
Rogers Hornsby who had a very productive year in his only season with Boston. He batted .387 to win his seventh and final batting championship. Fuchs was committed to building a winner, but the damage from the years before his arrival took some time to overcome. The Braves finally managed to compete in
1933 and
1934 under manager
Bill McKechnie, but Fuchs' revenue was severely depleted due to the
Great Depression.
Babe Ruth returns to Boston (right) in 1935 Looking for a way to get more supporters and more money, Fuchs worked out a deal with the
New York Yankees to acquire
Babe Ruth, who had, coincidentally, started his career with the
Boston Red Sox. Fuchs named Ruth vice president and assistant manager of the Braves, and promised him a share of team profits. He was also to be consulted on all player transactions. Fuchs even suggested that Ruth, who had long had his heart set on managing, could take over as manager once McKechnie stepped down—perhaps as early as 1936. At first, it looked like Ruth was the final piece the team needed in
1935. On
opening day, he had a hand in all of the Braves' runs in a 4–2 win over the
Giants. However, this could not last. Opening Day proved to be the only time the Braves were over .500 all year. A 4–20 May ended any realistic chance of contention. At the same time, it became apparent that Ruth was finished even as a part-time player. While his high living of previous years had begun catching up with him a year earlier, his conditioning rapidly declined in the first month of 1935. While he was still able to hit at first, he could do little else. He could no longer run, and his fielding was so terrible that three of the Braves' pitchers threatened to go on strike if Ruth were in the lineup. Ruth soon discovered that he was vice president and assistant manager in name only, and Fuchs' promise of a share of team profits was hot air. In fact, Ruth discovered that Fuchs expected him to invest some of
his money in the team. Adams picked
Bob Quinn as new owner. to
Braves Field, the third-largest gate in the National League and a high-water mark for the team's stay in Boston. The pitching staff was anchored by Hall of Famer
Warren Spahn and
Johnny Sain, who won 39 games between them. The remainder of the rotation was so thin that in September,
The Boston Post writer Gerald Hern wrote this poem about the pair: The poem received such a wide audience that the sentiment, usually now paraphrased as "Spahn, Sain, then pray for rain" or "Spahn, Sain and two days of rain", entered the baseball vocabulary. Ironically, in the 1948 season, the Braves actually had a better record in games that Spahn and Sain
did not start than in games they did. (Other sources include pitcher
Vern Bickford in the verse.) The Braves lost the
1948 World Series in six games to
the Cleveland Indians (who had beaten
the Red Sox in a
tie-breaker game to spoil an all-Boston World Series). This turned out to be the Braves' last hurrah in Boston.
1949–1952: Final years in Boston (pictured in 1952) is the only player to have represented the Braves in the three American cities they have called home.
Sam Jethroe Acquired earlier by trade from the
Brooklyn Dodgers, on April 18, 1950,
Sam "Jet" Jethroe was added to the
Boston Braves roster. The Dodgers had another young CF in
Duke Snider rising in their system, resulting in the trade to the Braves. Going on to be named
National League Rookie of the Year at age 32, Jethroe broke the color barrier with Boston. In 1950, Jethroe hit .273 with 100 runs, 18 home runs and 58 RBI. His 35 stolen bases led the National League, a feat he would duplicate in 1951. While in Boston, Jethroe was a roommate of
Chuck Cooper, of
the Boston Celtics who was the first African-American player drafted by an
NBA team.
Move to Milwaukee and aftermath Amid four mediocre seasons after 1948, attendance steadily dwindled, even though Braves Field had the reputation of being more family friendly than Fenway. For a half century, the major leagues had not had a single franchise move. The Braves played their last home game in Boston on September 21,
1952, losing to the
Brooklyn Dodgers before 8,822 at Braves Field; the home attendance for the 1952 season was under 282,000. After the franchise's long history in Boston, the day became known as "Black Friday" in the city as fans mourned the team's exit after eight decades. Perini, however, pointed to dwindling attendance as the main reason for the move. He also announced that he had recently bought out his original partners. He announced Milwaukee as that was where the Braves had their top farm club, the Brewers. Milwaukee had long been a possible target for moving.
Bill Veeck had tried to move his
St. Louis Browns there earlier the same year (Milwaukee was the original home of that franchise), but his proposal had been voted down by the other American League owners. Going into spring training in 1953, it appeared that the Braves would play another year in Boston unless the National League gave permission for the move. After a 3-hour meeting at the
Vinoy Park Hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida, league approval was granted after Perini promised not to sell the team. During a game against the
New York Yankees on March 18, the sale was announced final and that the team would move to Milwaukee, immediately. The
All-Star Game had been scheduled for Braves Field. It was moved to
Crosley Field and hosted by the
Cincinnati Reds. After the Braves moved to Milwaukee in
1953, the Braves Field site was sold to
Boston University and reconstructed as
Nickerson Field, the home of many
Boston University teams. The Braves Field scoreboard was sold to the
Kansas City A's and used at
Municipal Stadium; the A's moved to
Oakland after the
1967 season. ==Achievements==